Book pledged: the secret lives of sororities

[33girl]

Settle down, Beavis. She's just curious.

[decadence]

Aww y'all have a secret name for me. How sweet.

[Lil' Hannah]

jesus christ Pip's knickers are in a bundle.

[LiLAdpi]

Bought it, read it! CrAzY! I know most of the these things mentioned do take place....the good, the bad, the ugly. She seemed to leave a lot of the good out though in the book.

Is anyone else shocked at the rituals and secrets that she wrote about? Pi Beta Phi's arrow signifigance.....tri delts password.....? Was that really necessary!?

[FAB*SpiceySpice]

If it weren't for the different greek week schedules and number of sororities on campus I would have bet MONEY (and lots of it!!!) that "Pledged" took place at my very own lovely school. Kind of scary, but I am used to it by now so really it didn't shock me all that much.

I highly enjoyed the book however.

[FAB*SpiceySpice]

I know someone earlier in the thread mentioned how the away messages seemed kind of pointless...

I just wanted to say that that was one of my favorite parts of the book!!! My sorority is AIM obsessed, rather than call anyone I have everyone in my house (just about anyway) on my buddy list and I'd much rather IM them than call, it's so much easier. And I know that both my friends and I have put up those EXACT same away messages many times, it kind of freaked me out even!

I guess we just do that kind of thing b/c with so many girls in and out of the house it's a super easy way to keep in touch and always let people know where you're at/what you're doing at the moment.

And like I said in another thread, I highly enjoyed the book, but I really think that's b/c I could relate so much of the book (some good, some bad) to my own campus and sorority experience. I would never ever say that I had a bad experience at sorority life, I've loved just about all of it (of course nobody likes anything 100% of the time ever) and though some of you might all consider it to be bad or negative or whatever, I really think that it's not something you can express an honest opinion on until you've experienced it. Yes, I know we're all Greeks here for the most part, but my experience at a school like Mizzou with a huge competitive greek system is going to be 180 degrees different than someone who goes to like University of Nebraska-Omaha or something, where there is a MUCH smaller greek system, less competitive rush, no housing, etc.

Ok I am very tired so this may not have made much sense, so I am off to sleep!

[Taualumna]

Originally posted by FAB*SpiceySpice
If it weren't for the different greek week schedules and number of sororities on campus I would have bet MONEY (and lots of it!!!) that "Pledged" took place at my very own lovely school. Kind of scary, but I am used to it by now so really it didn't shock me all that much.

I highly enjoyed the book however.

You never know, it could very well be your school, except she just changeda few things around...scary thought, huh?

[Lady Pi Phi]

You know. I tend to think that it's all made up.

But giving her the benefit of the doubt and she did change the names of things, she would have to change everything to protect her "sources"

She mentions a founder day celebration on October 6th. Well since I couldn't find an NPC group that founded october 6th, but there were a few that were founded in Octber. It could be one of them.

She also mentions the colours blue and cream. I don't know any group that has blue and cream.

She also mentions a Japanese restaurant/bar that 2 groups went to for their greek week kick off. If that really is the name of the restaurant/bar, and if people know where it is, it could be a clue as to the location of the school.

But like I said before, I can't really take what she says at face value because she's covering up so much, so how do I know she's telling the truth.

I think she made it all up.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally posted by Lil' Hannah
jesus christ Pip's knickers are in a bundle.

LOL!

[breathesgelatin]

Originally posted by aabby757
Can I start a new thread on this topic alone? If there is already one, I couldn't find it.

aabby757, I don't think there is a need for a separate thread just on school speculation... It all fits into the umbrella discussion of the book. At least, since this is the entertainment forum, the discussion should be on the book. I've merged the threads...

[phisigcloud]

I have not read the book yet, actually its on it's way. I didn't want to add to her money bag so I bought it from an auction for only $14. So my money is not going directly to her.

A couple of my chapter sorority sisters have read it and were appalled. We were really scared because we thought there was ritual about our organization. However, my sisters told me that the information she mentions is open to everybody. Information for our national website even. So she gave open information and called it ritual. Basically she didn't have substantial information on ritual. So I'm relieved about that. It's horrible that PNM would think that all sororities do the activities mentioned in the book.

I read an expert from her book and it is funny how we buy tissue, lip balm, etc just because it has our letters. But you'd do the same with your college, favorite football team, etc.

My sorority sister said she got ideas from the book to haze our pledges. (just kidding) My sorority is very anti-hazing.

We put a lot of blame on Robbins for this book. If the four characters are real they are to blame. They do not cherish their sorority enough because they were willing to disclose information. Maybe this should be a lesson for all GLOs and be more selective and critical when picking women. We wouldn't want a pledged part 2.

[sororitygirl2]

Haven't read the book yet, and I actually don't know if I will, but I think a lot of comments I've seen here have been off base... maybe they aren't applicable at your school, but they are at lots.

For instance, sure boys aren't allowed to stay the night - but it doesn't mean they don't. A lot of houses on my campus had man hours in the day when guys could come up and guys staying over happened ALL THE TIME at several sororities at my school.

And as for chapters being shut down because they couldn't fill the house - that also happened. Sororities are in "business" in a way, after all, they have to cover their expenses.

Also, I do know Southern alums. sent gifts with their recs. for girls at my school - as recent as two years or so ago.

Anyway, I can't make any argument, I haven't read it. I'm just saying, don't assume she made things up because it didn't occur at your school while you were there. There are thousands of colleges in our fair nation and they are all very different.

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by sororitygirl2
... Anyway, I can't make any argument, I haven't read it. I'm just saying, don't assume she made things up because it didn't occur at your school while you were there. There are thousands of colleges in our fair nation and they are all very different.

I don't think any of us are denying that things in the book don't ever happen, but the fact Ms. Robbins is trying to allude these things happen everywhere and all the ills in a sorority woman's life is due to her sorority is laughable.

I have my own ideas on where she was but I need another look through the book to be more certain.

[James]

Actually, she does make the disclaimer that the experiences of four girls does not extrapolate into an entire system.

Originally posted by ISUKappa
I don't think any of us are denying that things in the book don't ever happen, but the fact Ms. Robbins is trying to allude these things happen everywhere and all the ills in a sorority woman's life is due to her sorority is laughable.

I have my own ideas on where she was but I need another look through the book to be more certain.

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by aabby757
Can I start a new thread on this topic alone? If there is already one, I couldn't find it.

Any guesses based on facts on what school these sororities are in? And what sororities they actually are? And why?

As a resident GC drama queen, I'll be the first one to bite.

As we discussed in the other thread, I originally guessed SMU for the school, although I'm now wondering if that was maybe too obvious of a choice. Vandy, Maryland and Indiana have also been suggested and I wouldn't rule any of those out either. However, I am pretty sure it IS a school that has deferred recruitment -- I don't think that's an aspect of the school that she changed. Robbins discusses a number of issues that would apply only to a school with winter rush, and I don't think those are things that she just stuck in there.

Some people have been guessing that Alpha Rho and Beta Pi are chapter names for the sororities but I'm not sure that's true. There are a number of factors Robbins would have considered when re-naming the sororities. I think Alpha Rho is AXO. As Kitso mentioned in one of the other threads, one of the girls is quoted as saying "We're Alpha-holics" which means Alpha Rho is probably either one of the ten NPC sororities that starts with Alpha, or Robbins made up that entire conversation (also an option ). Also, AXO has an October founders' day -- not the same day as in the book, but close enough. (Robbins obviously changed the exact date, but I don't think she would move it around too much for continuity reasons -- it was most likely a fall founders' day, probably an October one.) There were a couple other reasons that led me to conclude AXO, but I forget them now.

Beta Pi is listed as performing the rush skit Total Recruitment Pi (or something along those lines) and provided that Robbins didn't change the skit theme -- and I'm guessing she did not -- that leads me to believe that Beta Pi has a "Pi" in its real name, probably either ADPi or Pi Phi. There were a couple other reasons that led me towards Pi Phi but most of them were just conjecture.

It's hard to tell though. If I knew the school I could probably figure out the sororities easily enough and if I knew the sororities, the school would be easier to figure out -- but as it is, I'm not sure we're ever going to really know (which is probably the best for the chapters involved ).

I was going to do some more elaborate sleuthing but I got too lazy -- if anybody else wants to do it, you might try checking out schools' Dance Marathon and Homecoming schedules and try matching them up to the listed months (like I said, I think Robbins did some changing of dates but I don't think she put many, if any, of the events out of order since that would screw up the continuity of the story she was telling). I want to get Lil' Hannah on the internet stalking case since she's so good at it . . .